Saturday 15/07/06 Day 2 @ Guilfest

Share

Guilfest is traditionally an 'older' festival. No we don't mean with knights in medieval garb, we mean it's for an older clientele. On the first night they had to suffer Embrace, so understandably they're all looking older today. But the atmosphere is friendly and fresh, with great food stalls (a matter of some importance after certain festivals this summer), and while the clientele may be older, there is still a funkiness to the proceedings.

Of course there are drawbacks. The Rock Sound tent is so clammy that Festivalwise can't stand to occupy it for more than five minutes, despite there being a few mildly interesting bands like The Delilahs and The Hedrons set to play. It is with some reservation that we plod over to Sandi Thom. However the volume on the stage is so low that despite being quite close, Thom sounds weedy. It is only one track before we get distracted by something of real quality - the sound of Kosheen starting up on the main stage, and then the strains of 'Hide You' weaving across Guilfest. We literally run across the slope, weaving in and out of the tartan lawn of middle class picnic-ers.

Sian is as usual the consummate front woman, swirling like a banshee in a cool white linen dress with a pink scarf as a form of stunt prop. She does a lot of good for older artists, and its hardly surprising that when she pours a bottle of mineral water over her hair, the crowd goes wild. As well as hits like 'Catch You if I Can', we hear material from the new album 'Damage' such as 'Overkill' which is to be the new single.

There's a chance Gary Numan might be a little bit arrogant. For starters the speakers are pumping out artificial crowd noises in order to make us think everyone is cheering manically for him. The fact that most people are lying on the floor while cheers from a Wembley concert are pumped out does not make them that convincing. Despite these delusions of grandeur, Mr Numan is certainly interesting in a car-crash sort of way. Heavy synth patterns splatter across the excessively rocky set, and Gary has a good voice despite the fact he must be, well, a bit old now.